Fifty Sentences About Five Children
by Scarabbug
Summary: Done for the fifty sentences challenge on Livejournal. Fifty sentence fanfictions from the perspective of the human children in Sonic X. Alpha: Francis. Beta: Danny. Gamma: Chris. Delta: Helen. Epsilon: Molly.
1. Alpha: Francis

**I felt as if I needed some practise writing the human kids of Sonic X, given that they're actually going to play at least moderately important roles in my "Chaos Mythologies" fanfiction. So I decided to sign them up for the "Fifty Sentences" challenge on live journal. **

**The challenge is to write single sentences, about fifty different themes, and there are five theme sets to choose from. However, I'm really not very good at writing an entire story in just one sentence (who is?) so most of these are a tiny bit longer than they should be. None of them are longer than 100 words, and most are far less. **

**Standard disclaimers apply. Reviews and concrit are appreciated. **

**Pairings include Francis/Danny, and hints of Francis/Chris. **

* * *

Alpha: Francis. 

**#1: Comfort**

'You'll grow again, right?' Francis tells him, and knows that it was probably the wrong thing to say, but with Chris standing in front of the portal looking just the way he did when he was twelve years old, she figures that _not_ laughing her head off is really the best thing she can do for him. 

**#2: Kiss**

Boys can be so _stupid_ sometimes, but Danny is probably right –how is _he_ supposed to know that it's bad luck not to kiss someone under the mistletoe? Besides, she's eleven years old now, and girls mature a lot _faster_ than boys do, so Francis supposes she'll just have to show him how it works; if he would stop _squirming_... 

**#3: Soft**

The mascara neatens her eyes up, sure, but Francis can't help feeling the slightest bit phony, as she pulls on her soft-blue graduation dress and hurries down to meet Danny at the doorway, struggling not to trip in those darned high heels... 

**#4: Pain**

When Cream hugs her tightly before running back to her mother and the portal that will take them away from this world forever, Francis has to bite her lip very hard to keep from crying, at least until long after they've disappeared. 

**#5 Potatoes**

She isn't a big fan of gardening; but when Helen turns up at her door with a bag in her lap and a smile on her face, Francis lets her in immediately, and they spend the rest of the afternoon replacing her mother's geraniums with potato seeds. 

**#6: Rain **

She keeps thinking it's going to rain on the morning Sonic and the others are supposed to go home, and is kind of happy when the clouds just hang and shudder, but never let their raindrops fall. There's enough water around them today as it is. 

**#7: Chocolate **

She's not sure if it's formulaic for a girl to enjoy cooking as much as Francis does, but she does know that nobody but her can make a chocolate cake that comes even close to rivalling Ella's, so it's probably not a bad thing. 

**#8: Happiness**

Someone told her once that "happiness is good health and a bad memory", but Francis doesn't know whether she believes in that or not, because she knows she never wants to forget a single moment she ever had with Sonic, Chris and all her friends. 

**#9: Telephone**

When mom phones her at the sleepover to say she missed the monthly call, Francis tries her hardest not to cry, because she's a big girl now, too old for getting upset about her daddy's wars. Chris understands a lot better than most people do though, because he only ever gets to talk to _his_ dad on the phone, too. 

**#10: Ears**

They're kind of like her cat Bonnie's ears used to be before she got run over. The only problem is that Sonic will never stay _still_ long enough for her to touch them, and work out whether they _feel_ like Bonnie's ears did, too. 

**#11: Name**

She looked it up in the dictionary ("Sonic; _adjective_; noting or pertaining to a speed equal to that of sound in air at the same height above sea level") she figures that the name suits him, except for the fact that hedgehogs don't like water. 

**#12: Sensual**

Francis is nineteen years old when she first discovers exactly _why_ her mother always spent so much time in the bathtub when she lived at home, and from that night on there's always a queue of three people trying to get into theirs for at least two hours every Saturday night. 

**#13: Death**

The first thing Francis can think is: _he's dead_, because he _must_ be out there and nobody can survive an explosion like that twice, so when Chris turns up on her doorstep a few hours later with a sheepish look on his face, Francis doesn't feel the slightest bit embarrassed about shrieking and hugging him until he can't breathe properly. 

**#14: Sex**

Really, Francis doesn't get what her friends are so worked _up_ about. Sure, it's going to be messy and annoying and maybe even painful, but if it's something that happens to _all_ girls eventually, so why should she waste her precious childhood getting worked up about it? 

**#15: Touch**

She grabs his hand and they begin running; a wild, urgent dash through the high streets in their desperation to get to Sonic; and every time Francis starts to think they might just not be fast enough, Chris's grip on her hand tightens, and she starts to think that, just like Sonic, maybe nothing in the world can stop them now. 

**#16: Weakness**

Francis is a girl, and because of it people tend to assume she's not as powerful as they are, or as fast, or as brave, but they're all wrong, and Francis lets their preconceived ideas about her ability be _their_ weakness; not hers. 

**#17: Tears**

She spent the rest of the soccer match sitting in the stalls with tears running down her face, which is really silly; because it isn't like she _meant_ to kick the other team's striker in the face _that_ hard, it's just that her feet are really good at kicking things... 

**#18: Speed **

Francis isn't surprised that Chris is incapable of making u-turns, that Danny checks his rear view mirror about six times before parking, and that Helen has never so much as gotten a ticket; but what does surprise her is the fact that _she's_ been pulled over by the _Speed Patrol_ themselves and compared to a certain blue hedgehog when she's behind the wheel of a car. 

**#19: Wind**

Of all the places Francis had expected to spend her graduation weekend, standing with Chris, Danny and Helen under a raging portal ripping up the cornfields all around them, just like in that bad movie they saw at new Years, was definitely _not_ one of them. 

**#20: Freedom**

Francis never understood why Chris got so existed whenever Sonic reached out and let him take his hand before running; it's only when he's reaching out a hand to her instead, and she feels the world shifting from smooth and still to lightning-fast motion that Francis finally understands: running with Sonic is freedom. 

**#21: Life**

Helen was small and strong, only had half a working body and drove a specially adapted vehicle, Danny wasn't that good at anything which didn't involve sparring and kata, and Chris... well, Chris was Chris, but all of them still taught Francis a few lessons about what it meant to be alive. 

**#22: Jealousy**

It's not that she's _jealous_; not really; it's more the fact that Chris went _without_ them, leaving nothing but a note, as if he was the _only_ one, Francis thought angrily, who missed Sonic and the others, and wanted to see them again. 

**#23: Hands**

His hands are totally different to how Chris's were, when they were younger – darker, firmer, and rough from martial arts classes, instead of because they were always tinkering around with computers, but holding them feels the same and makes her feel, once again, as if nothing in the world can stop them. 

**#24: Taste**

The funniest thing–the thing which almost makes her laugh out loud, right in the middle of what was probably meant to be a highly significant moment of her adolescent life– is the fact that he tastes exactly the same way as he had that day six years ago, when they stood under the mistletoe together and Danny was squirming to get away the whole time. 

**#25: Devotion**

It takes her over a month to stop being angry with him after he gets home from Sonic's world; and it's only when she finds him standing in the lab room, looking despondently at where the portal used to be, that Francis realises, after six whole years of trying to understand, why things worked out the way they did. 

**#26: Forever**

When Francis sits all dressed up in the isle, and listens to Mr Tanaka and Topaz vowing to be together forever, she only glances at Danny for a brief second; was it _her_ fault that he chose that exact same moment to glimpse at her too and they spent the rest of the after party blushing and avoiding each other? 

**#27: Blood**

She knows that there's pretty much nothing her friends won't do in order to protect her, if she needs it (not that she ever does), Francis just didn't realise that she was willing to do the same thing, until the minute that she could taste her own blood in her mouth and still refused to allow Eggman's robot to get the better of her. 

**#28: Sickness**

It was Chris who got her out of the bathroom, sat her down with a cup of tea and settling tablets and went to the chemist to pick up the package that would prove everything that the sickness in her stomach and the strange craving for root beer were already telling her: that she is going to _kill_ Danny the second he gets home from the tournament. 

**#29: Melody**

Helen hums as she picks flowers from the gardens, just the way Cream used to; and Francis is fairly sure that it's as much therapy for her to sit underneath a nearby tree and listen as it is for Helen to hum in the first place. 

**#30: Star**

Francis knows that it's not really a star which she can see exploding with light in the middle of the afternoon sun – but it glows as brightly as any star ever would, and all that she can do is stand there, with her feet rooted firmly to the ground, hoping that they're all okay. 

**#31: Home**

Francis tries to tell herself time and again that it's a _good_ thing that Sonic and the others are going home, but all of her self-encouraging thoughts and hopes go straight out of the window when she sees the look on Chris's face, and knows immediately what it is he's planning to do. 

**#32: Confusion**

When Sonic first arrived in their world, nobody really understood, because all he ever seemed to do was run around and make people chase after him; and Francis had to meet him before she understood that he was nothing to be afraid of; in fact he was actually pretty awesome. 

**#33: Fear**

Francis wasn't used to being afraid, but the closer the Space Station came to crashing into the earth, the more the niggling terror began to form in the back of her mind, and the more she started to do what everyone else was doing in their minds, and praying that Sonic would be in time. 

**#34: Lightning/Thunder**

Francis wasn't the type of kid to cower on her mother's lap whenever the lightning flashed –and she would yell back at the thunder with gusto, cursing it for trying to frighten her every time the sky darkened. 

**#35: Bonds**

The more time they spent with each other after the others returned to their home world, the more Francis realised that the bond she and Chris had was based on something a little deeper than just a blue hedgehog that moved faster than the speed of sound. 

**#36: Market**

Chris tells her about the time he visited a market on a planet in Sonic's world; the stories always make their own world's markets seem dull and uninteresting by comparison. 

**#37: Technology**

Francis's idea of technology is hitting something until it either works, or breaks down altogether, and Chris really doesn't appreciate it when she does that to the lab computers. 

**#38: Gift**

Everyone on their world loves Sonic, admires him and even tries to imitate him, but Francis likes to think, when Chris smiles at her and they start scrambling back to their feet in the decimated cornfield, that Sonic gave her a gift far better than just a hero she could idolise. 

**#39: Smile**

Francis sometimes tries to smile the way Sonic used to smile whenever he'd done something amazing, even if it makes her look a little silly. 

**#40: Innocence**

Any man, woman or creepy robot that tried to pass Francis off as another naive little girl would be seriously barking up the wrong tree, and she would be the first to give them a demonstration of just how wrong they were. 

**#41: Completion **

Even though it's a lot less dangerous than it had been before, Francis can't help but think that her outwards journey in the Tornado was a lot more fun than their eventual –if victorious– return. 

**#42: Clouds**

She's never seen clouds close up before; but the X-Tornado's window gives her a view on just about everything. Suddenly, through the thick glass windows, her own world seems so much smaller than it had ever been before. 

**#43: Sky**

She feels like one of those kids in the really old fashioned TV shows they aired on Sundays; running through a cornfield in search of a shovel, and with the sky bright blue and cloud filled above them; maybe saving the world isn't always as dangerous and scary as it is in movies. 

**#44: Heaven**

If there are other worlds, Francis thinks, then maybe some of the ones humans imagine to exist are real, too; this is a comforting thing to believe whenever she thinks about all those fights that her friends get into these days, and just how dangerous their lives are becoming. 

**#45: Hell**

Francis discovers on the day the Chaos creature comes, that Hell doesn't necessarily have lava pits and creepy horned demons: sometimes, it looks like a distant flood and shattered landscape, tearing down the city she calls home like it's made of so many waterlogged toothpicks. 

**#46: Sun**

It's just like sunlight, Francis thinks; the way he glows so brightly that you can't see anything except for him; it must be so warm nearby him that she wishes she could be right there; but watching from a distance is all that she can really do.

**#47: Moon**

It's kind of weird, having only half a moon up there, but it still shines just as brightly when she takes Danny to the Point during their graduation ball night, so that's okay. 

**#48: Waves**

It's not that Francis _wants_ to mess with their relationship, but there's no way they're going to talk to each other again if someone doesn't _make_ them; so maybe Chris shouldn't have been so surprised when Francis pushed him into the Lab and locked the door behind him, leaving him alone with Helen. 

**#49: Hair**

It isn't so much a fashion statement; just that she'd had her hair in exactly the same style since she was roughly ten years old, and Francis doesn't want to look like a little kid anymore. 

**#50: Supernova**

She'd thought that nothing could seem brighter than the way Super Sonic had appeared back on the day that Chaos flooded Station Square: then she saw the burning mixed light of a thousand colours in Chris's outline as he turned and looked at her, holding out a hand and smiling in the beauty of the opened portal.

* * *


	2. Beta: Danny

**I felt as if I needed some practise writing the human kids of Sonic X, given that they're actually going to play at least moderately important roles in my "Chaos Mythologies" fanfiction. So I decided to sign them up for the "Fifty Sentences" challenge on live journal. **

**The challenge is to write single sentences, about fifty different themes, and there are five theme sets to choose from. However, I'm really not very good at writing an entire story in just one sentence (who is?) so most of these are a tiny bit longer than they should be. None of them are longer than 100 words, and most are far less. **

**Round two, then. This one's for Danny. **

**

* * *

**

Beta: Danny.

**#1: Walking**

He walks with Francis for a while, after the portal taking their friends home closes, and he's perfectly happy to listen to her complaining about how stupid Chris has just been, and _not_ talk about how much both of them secretly wish they had done the exact same thing and shut that damn portal down right at the start.

**#2 Waltz**

Danny knows fine well that he can't dance to save his life, but try convincing Francis of that –she's been trying to teach him how to waltz ever since they were thirteen years old, and Danny _still_ hasn't gotten the hang of it.

**#3: Wishes **

Danny wonders whether or not you can make a wish on a Chaos Emerald; if you can, then he can't decide whether he would wish to be in the Big State Karate tournament, or for enough strength to pound Eggman into the ground a thousand times over: it's a tough choice.

**#4: Wonder**

He knows how lucky he is to have known Sonic, even for such a short time, but Danny can't help wondering what it would have been like if they hadn't disappeared back to their world seven years ago, and he'd never really had to grow up.

**#5: Worry**

It's not that Danny is _worried_ about him or anything, but he still somehow finds himself standing on Chris's doorstep the day after Sonic and the others go home, with a leaflet from his Karate class in one hand and a punching mitt in the other.

**#6: Whimsy **

Danny discovers that focussing on schoolwork is really, really hard when you can't stop wondering about what Sonic is up to right now, and how much more fun it would be to be out there running with him instead of stuck here in class.

**#7: Waste/Wasteland**

Station Square looks like a wasteland after Chaos' flood waters reside; but be damned if that's going to stop Danny from doing everything he can to make their home look right again; after all if Sonic can do it, so can he.

**#8: Whiskey and Rum**

Danny never understood why his mom and dad always had kept two bottles of this stuff in the house, but after trying some of it when nobody was looking, he's fairly sure that neither of them are drinking it for the taste.

**#9: War**

It's kind of like a war: Sonic, Tails and all the others, facing the eternal struggle against Doctor Robotnik and his evil super machines; and it's hard for Danny to remember, sometimes, that even crazy, surreal wars like this have causalities.

**#10: Weddings**

It's really not his fault that Francis decided to look right at him at the exact moment that Grandpa Chuck was leading Miss Topaz down the aisle to meet her future husband, but Danny admits that he could probably have tried a lot harder to talk to her about their shared and furtive glance afterwards.

**#11: Birthday**

Danny was at first disappointed to discover that his thirteenth birthday didn't feel any different to the twelve he'd had before; then his voice started squeaking in class, and he realised that being a teenager really _was_ going to be different to being a child, after all.

**#12: Blessing**

He doesn't realise just how much knowing Sonic had meant to him, until the moment the portal closes and Danny realises that he's crying for something he's lost and will probably never get back.

**#13: Bias**

Danny knows he's kind of biased about wanting the guy in the blue car to win the Station Square rally race this year, even while knowing that Chris's Uncle Sam is another of the competitors: but hey, who can really blame him?

**#14: Burning**

It's difficult for Danny to realise, as he sees the glowing red shape of the Space Colony descending slowly towards their planet that pretty much anyone on board the thing would've burned to ashes and disappeared as soon as they entered the atmosphere.

**#15: Breathing**

Being whacked in the stomach by an out on control kitchen appliance is not in the least bit fun, and Danny has a hard time explaining to everyone the next day that he's sitting out of soccer practise because he has breathing trouble, and bruises all over his chest as a result of Assault By Toaster.

**#16: Breaking**

Helen is really, really upset about what he did to her Garden Gnome, but come on, how the heck was he supposed to know she didn't want "Gordon" used as a goal post?

**#17: Belief**

When Chris asks him one day after class what it is that Danny believes in, and he asks Chris the same question back, neither of them have to tell the other that their answer is "Sonic".

**#18: Balloon **

Danny is surprised to find that Cream enjoys blowing up balloons as much as he enjoys popping them, and they manage to waste an entire afternoon engaging in both of these activities, and go home at the end of the day feeling breathless from laughter.

**#19: Balcony**

It wasn't so much the big house and the swimming pool that convinced Danny Chris' parents were rich as it was the fact that their house had a balcony –come on, how many kids houses have a _balcony_ unless their owners are seriously loaded?

**#20: Bane**

Eggman is the bane of every person living in Station Square, but Danny still can't help thinking that things were a lot more boring around here before that guy came along and started trying to conquer the world every day.

**#21 Quiet**

Francis is very quiet after Sonic and the others go home, and Danny has to sit with her in the park, not saying a single word for over half an hour before she finally grabs hold of him and starts crying.

**#22: Quirks**

Chris had some of the weirdest quirks Danny had ever seen in a guy, but he can kind of understand why muttering Knuckles' Master Emerald chant under his breath always calms them both down before a mid-term paper.

**#23: Question**

Danny doesn't have to say anything when Chris returns to Station Square twenty four hours after he shut down the portal that was supposed to send Sonic home; Danny knows the question he wants to ask is written all over his face, and Chris's sad expression answers it without him saying a word.

**#24: Quarrel**

He's so angry with Chris after he returns from Sonic's world (at least three feet shorter than he should be) that Danny doesn't regret it in the slightest when he yells that Chris deserves it, for not taking them with him just as he had promised he would do.

**#25: Quitting**

So why is it, Danny wonders, that only Chris is capable of convincing him to rip up the "Student Withdrawal from Module" Form that Danny has sitting on his lap after he fails his final semester exams?

**#26: Jump**

When Sonic grabs his arm while standing on the very edge of the toppling building, grins at him confidently and tells him to jump, the only question upon Danny's lips –one which surprises the heck out of even him– is "how high?"

**#27: Jester**

Danny knows Francis is never going to let him forget that "a tough-headed, stubborn, martial arts fanatic twelve year old with a mortal fear of clowns is just stupid" but since _he _knows all about her deeply ingrained fear of flour, both of them know they can trust the other to keep schtum.

**#28: Jousting**

Fencing isn't exactly the same was Martial Arts, Danny realise son the day he makes the fine mistake of challenging Mister Tanaka to a duel – turns out the Butler's talk of being a champion combatant wasn't all hot air after all.

**#29: Jewel**

The Chaos Emerald in his hands glows with an inner beauty that Chris could never have captured in his painting, and all of a sudden, Danny realises just why that weird bat girl loves pretty jewels so much that she's prepared to steal them.

**#30: Just**

It isn't _fair_, Danny thinks, after Sonic has– _finally–_ gone home and they're all sitting in Chris's basement waiting for him and his parents to return, but he keeps his lips firmly sealed and settles for patting Helen comfortingly on the shoulder as they wait.

**#31: Smirk**

Danny is pretty sure that Chris could only have learned that smirk from Sonic; but that's okay, because Danny learned his "you're goin' down, punk" expression from Knuckles (if nothing else, their karate sparring matches are always interesting experiences).

**#32: Sorrow**

Everyone is so nice to each other, after the portal closes behind Sonic and the others –so polite and quiet and timid and thoughtful– that Danny soon finds himself wondering which of them is going to crack and start yelling about the unfairness of it all first.

**#33: Stupidity**

He knows it's stupid of him to blame the government for Sonic and the others leaving, but that doesn't change the fact that Danny votes for the opposing party every year afterwards from the day he's old enough to put his cross on the ballot paper.

**#34: Serenade**

Danny could've sworn that she was going to crack up when he stuck a song into the band's routine especially for her, so he can only feel surprised –and not unpleasantly so– when rather than laughing, Francis just smiles at him with tears in her eyes for the rest of the rehearsal.

**#35: Sarcasm**

It probably wasn't a good idea to bring up the Secret Agent thing in class, even sarcastically: after all, Danny wasn't to know that the normally calm and composed Mr Steward would throw a fit and stick him in detention for the rest of the day.

**#36: Sordid **

He can't get the image out of his head; whenever he thinks of someone –anyone–trying to lay so much as a finger on Helen, he starts wishing that Sonic were here: or at least, that he was permitted to use his martial arts in non-self-defence situations.

**#37: Soliloquy **

He finds it impossible to fit every word he wishes to say about her into such a slight moment, so Danny brushes aside any thoughts of making a soliloquy and just drops down on one knee with the ring in his fingertips, hoping to any God that might exist that she doesn't say no.

**#38: Sojourn**

It might be the last time they get to see each other, he knows, as the four of them bundle their bags into the back of Helen's car and start arguing about who gets to drive (Helen, of course) so Danny plans to make the most of every single moment of their Graduation trip together.

**#39: Share**

The boys in class spend the rest of the day giggling and making snide remarks, but Danny is so damn pleased that Francis decided to share her ice cream with him of all people, that he can't bring himself to tell them all to shut up and go away.

**#40: Solitary**

Danny had never realised what it must have felt like for Chris; being so _alone_ all the time, until he found himself standing in the shadow of the closed portal and staring at the place where his new friends had been a few hours earlier.

**#41: Nowhere**

It's a kind of childish impulse, for them, when Mister Tanaka asks where on earth the two teenagers think they are at this ridiculous hour when they're supposed to be at home in bed, to squeak out the word "nowhere" and start racing back to the car as quickly as they can.

**#42: Neutral**

Neither he nor Chris can really understand why the girls insist on spending an entire afternoon trying to find the perfect prom gowns at the mall; and for the most part both of them stay utterly silent about the whole thing.

**#43: Nuance **

There are a lot of small but important differences between the way he was before Sonic and the way he is now –not least the fact that it's more of a struggle to ground him during a sparring match than it used to be.

**#44: Near**

Danny doesn't know much about science, but he knows that the words "alternate reality" must mean that Sonic honestly can't be _that_ far away... right?

**#45: Natural**

Despite having spent the last twelve years thinking that girls are kind of icky, nothing ever felt quite as natural as Francis, whether she was yelling at him or wrapping her arms around him in massive hug.

**#46: Horizon**

'I'm... going... to kill you,' is the only thing that a rather sickly sounding Francis says to him down the phone line, but Danny knows her well enough to have a fairly good idea about what her tone of voice means anyway, and starts to see baby booties somewhere on the horizon, instead of a Karate Tournament .

**#47: Valiant**

Danny realises when Chris returns from Space Station ARK, looking like someone's beaten him up three times over, that bravery has absolutely nothing to do with not being afraid of something, but of being terrified to death all the time, and still not giving in.

**#48: Virtuous**

"Victory is nothing without virtue", his dad said to him once, and Danny tries to remember that as he reaches out to shake Chris's hand and wish him good luck during the next round of the Martial Arts Tournament.

**#49: Victory**

...Still, Danny isn't going to complain if Chris loses; after all he _did_ cheat to get this far in the first place.

**#50: Defeat**

Danny isn't used to losing a fight fair and square, but after Eggman vanishes into the sky with a Chaos Emerald glowing in his clenched fist, Danny has honestly never felt more defeated in his life.

* * *


	3. Gamma: Chris

**I felt as if I needed some practise writing the human kids of Sonic X, given that they're actually going to play at least moderately important roles in my "Chaos Mythologies" fanfiction. So I decided to sign them up for the "Fifty Sentences" challenge on live journal.**

**The challenge is to write single sentences, about fifty different themes, and there are five theme sets to choose from. However, I'm really not very good at writing an entire story in just one sentence (who is?) so most of these are a tiny bit longer than they should be. None of them are longer than 100 words, and most are far less.**

**Standard disclaimers apply. Reviews and concrit are appreciated.**

**Three sets down: I'm up to Chris.**

* * *

Gamma: Chris. 

**#1: Ring**

He spends the entire journey back to earth clutching the ring that Shadow left behind far too tightly in his fingers, and trying not to feel as if he's lost someone he'd known his entire life.

**#2: Hero**

He never needed a hero where a friend would suffice; Chris just never realised that the two things were so often interlinked.

**#3: Memory**

The photo doesn't tell Chris anything he doesn't already know in his heart, but the sound of the frame smashing against the floor of the lab still hurts.

**#4: Box**

Creating the box of memories for Cosmo's Seed-Child had been Amy's idea, really, but it was Chris who came up with the idea of writing "Just in Case We Snuff It" on the lid.

**#5: Run**

He's faster than he used to be, even managing to complete the 100 Metre Sprint in less than seven seconds; and Chris is pretty sure he can attribute that to Sonic's influence.

**#6: Hurricane**

He keeps a tight grip on Francis as the cornfield is ripped apart and decimated all around them, while silently promising himself that he would never look at Disaster movies in the same way again.

**#7: Wings**

It's like flying, except for all the ways in which it isn't; because Sonic's feet are still rooted firmly to the ground with every step he takes and Chris is too wrapped up in the sensation to even think about crying yet.

**#8: Cold**

Chris hadn't actually realised that anyone was within shouting distance, until he sneezed and heard Sonic saying 'Bless you,' from outside the window.

**#9: Red**

'Aren't emeralds supposed to be green?' Mr Steward says curiously over his shoulder, and Chris curses privately to himself and vows to throw the painting away the second he gets home.

**#10: Drink**

He's pretty sure he swallowed some of the chlorinated water when he jumped into the pool, but that's okay, because Sonic swallowed a lot more, and the stomach ache was well worth saving him from drowning, anyway.

**#11: Midnight**

It's almost but not quite midnight when they finally get around to saying goodbye, and he can almost feel time grinding to a halt, just the way Grandpa said it would, as Sonic vanishes into the darkness for the last time and Chris knows he's done the right thing, however painful it may be.

**#12: Temptation**

The hand brushes against his face with the lightness of a feather before Shadow snaps away from him, the desperation in his eyes replaced by a cold, clear fury that makes Chris wonder what on earth he did wrong.

**#13: View**

Chris doesn't know who "Maria" is or was, but he knows that she's the reason Shadow didn't kill him, and the reason they're both here right now, gazing down from Space Colony ARK at the Sonic-blue planet below.

**#14: Music**

Discovering that Helen plays the piano is something of an experience: one which leads him to standing silently outside of the Music Hall every evening just so he can walk her home after practise.

**#15: Silk**

Cosmo's hand in his is just like he never imagined it might be –cool and silky, like the surface of a petal, except for the fact that petals don't sweat with fear or cling to you for dear life when you brush against them.

**#16: Cover**

'Duck and cover!' is the first thing Mr Steward shrieks in a not-very-authoritarian manner when they hear the alarm bells screaming across the playground, and it takes Chris several rather amused minutes to let the clearly unapprised teacher know that the alarm bells are for _fire safety_ and not the threat of a nuclear attack.

**#17: Promise**

'We'll see each other again someday,' he says, and all that Chris can do is nod and force himself to smile, because neither of them is certain that this is a promise they can keep.

**#18: Dream**

People asked about it at school, of course, because he kept arriving in class looking like he'd been awake for half the night; but Chris doesn't yet feel comfortable with telling anyone about the dreams of Chaos Emeralds erupting in the air, and Sonic vanishing into the light and destruction they created.

**#19: Candle**

He had to explain to Cosmo the exact purpose of the candlelight, when he was helping her say goodbye to the family she had lost; and while he wasn't entirely certain whether or not she understood, he was fairly sure that the process made her feel at least a little better.

Her eyes say it: he can see himself in them, young and frightened and reflected in a face that needed answers

**#20: Talent**

He's better at writing than he ever thought he would be, but Chris still finds himself having to resist the temptation to add "based on real events" to the Thank You's listed in his appendices, because woe betide his parents ever finding out he once jumped from a flying vehicle at two thousand feet.

**#21: Silence**

He doesn't say a word the entire trip back from the Lodge, or for most of the night afterwards, it's only when Chuck glimpses around the open bedroom door several long hours later when pretty much everyone else in the house is asleep that Chris says: 'You were right, grandpa, the world didn't have to end tonight after all.'

**#22: Journey **

It takes them roughly six minutes to circle the entire continent, and Chris tried to count every single second, but lost track somewhere about the point when he felt Sonic's tears on his face.

**#23: Fire**

Shadow tells himself that the burning sensation in his stomach comes from the feeling of sheer rage that anyone could have the raw nerve to be born with eyes so very much like hers, and nothing more.

**#24: Strength**

He used to believe that all the strength he has, he borrowed directly from Sonic, and perhaps he never truly realised that the reverse was equally true.

**#25: Mask**

He's really not sure what boyhood hero Mr Tanaka has been inspired by, but he still vows that he's taking off this ridiculous mask before they get to Prison Island.

**#26: Ice**

It's not that Shadow is frightening, not _really_: it's just that there's something about the way he looks at Chris as if he's someone else that chills him to the bone.

**#27: Fall**

Falling from Eggman's flying craft with a Chaos Emerald grasped tightly in one hand was nothing short of petrifying, but Chris wasn't to know back then, of course, that Sonic would always be right there to catch him.

**#28: Forgotten **

'I could never forget you, Chris,' he says to him, and Chris believes him without hesitation.

**#29: Dance**

There could be nothing as amusing as seeing Amy trying to get Sonic to dance, but the whole thing doesn't seem quite so funny when Cream grabs Chris's hand and drags him out there, too, whether he wants it or not.

**#30: Body **

Chris will never forget the sensation of having six years of your life squeezed out of you by the Master Emerald's Chaos Control, but as soon as the portal opens onto Sonic's world he knows that the effort was totally worth it.

**#31: Sacred**

Helen didn't let just anyone grab her handlebars and spin her round the way she allowed Chris to: he considered this something of a privilege.

**#32: Farewells**

It's the look in the boy's eyes –frightened, determined, full of pain– just before he collapses that finally makes Shadow realise he has to let Maria go.

**#33: World**

When Sonic talks about the hundreds of places he's been to all around the world, Chris can only sit in silence and listen, because his world contains only Sonic.

**#34: Formal**

He'd feel a little better about all this if he wasn't being made to wear the best suit in his wardrobe – how are you supposed to run away from home when you're all dressed up as if you're going to a wedding?

**#35: Fever**

Being attacked by household appliances is something most kids in his situation would pass off as just a really weird dream; but being who he is, Chris is fairly sure that the toaster trying to kill him _isn't_ a hallucinatory reaction to the antibiotics

**#36: Laugh**

Before Sonic came into his life, Chris could count the number of times in he had laughed until his stomach hurt on one hand.

**#37: Lies**

'You know, it's alright if you really want to go home tomorrow, Sonic; I won't stop you.'

**#38: Forever**

Looking back, Chris realises that the six years he spent trying to recreate the portal that would take him to Sonic is no different than saying "forever".

**#39 Overwhelmed. **

Chris is fairly sure that if he hadn't met Sonic when he did, he would've grown up to develop a serious complex, but then again, he's fairly sure their friendship is going to cause him to develop one anyway, so it hardly matters...

**#40: Whisper**

He's so wrapped up in trying to hold onto him and never let him go, that Chris almost doesn't hear Sonic –No, he's _Super Sonic,_ now– whispering: 'Almost lost ya pal almost so _close_...'

**#41: Wait**

He's fairly sure Sonic isn't waiting for the day when they'll arrive in his world, because Sonic never waits for _anything_; but Chris knows he'll be happy to see them when they get there anyway.'

**#42: Talk**

It wasn't that they talked a lot, or even very often, but when they did the conversations could've carried on forever, to fill up all the spaces where they both were silent.

**#43: Search**

Looking for the seven Chaos Emeralds is similar to looking for seven very small, super powerful pins in a haystack the size of a continent, but Sonic moves so fast and seems so confident of their eventual success, that Chris can believe it's possible anyway.

**#44: Hope**

It feels kind of strange really that the planet earth is placing all their hopes for salvation on the shoulders of one oversized blue hedgehog, but Chris can't honestly imagine anyone better suited oto the job.

**#45: Eclipse**

It takes Chris about fifteen seconds to shake some common sense into himself and stop thinking "oh, damn, we _did_ scare it away" when New Year falls across the ocean, and yet the sun refuses to rise.

**#46: Gravity**

Grandpa always said that for Sonic to travel as fast as he did he honestly had be breaking some human law of gravity, but Chris didn't realise how serious his grandpa was until the time Sonic took his hands, folded them around his neck and told him to hold on tight, no matter what.

**#47: Highway**

Of course, the road doesn't seem a fraction as long to Sonic as it must do to Chris, but he also seems to realise that Chris wouldn't accept a helping hand right now, so he stayed quiet about it and simply waited for the boy to catch up.

**#48: Unknown**

It takes six years, an encounter with a strange blue hedgehog, a collapsing timeline and a trek through seven miles of forestland in her best dress for Lindsey Thorndyke to realise just how little she knows about the son she has loved with all her heart for such a very long time.

**#49: Lock**

The portal is shut down once again: locked and drained of power, with no proof that it will ever awaken again, but now, after six years of waiting and hoping, this is something that Christopher Thorndyke finally believes he can live with.

**#50: Breathe**

No matter how much everyone had gone through to ensure that he was safe, Chris was honestly quite prepared to waste the very last breath he had on begging Shadow for help.

* * *


	4. Delta: Helen

**I felt as if I needed some practise writing the human kids of Sonic X, given that they're actually going to play at least moderately important roles in my "Chaos Mythologies" fanfiction. So I decided to sign them up for the "Fifty Sentences" challenge on live journal.**

**The challenge is to write single sentences, about fifty different themes, and there are five theme sets to choose from. However, I'm really not very good at writing an entire story in just one sentence (who is?) so most of these are a tiny bit longer than they should be. None of them are longer than 100 words, and most are far less.**

**Helen's turn... does this girl have a second name? For that matter, do **_**any**_** of the kids besides Chris have one? Darn writers didn't even bother to think up surnames for the kids... **

**But yes, this is technically the last one here, so I can mark this as complete. Has hints of HelenChris buzzing around in it, and a couple more vague pairings dodging back an fourth if you squint. **

* * *

**Delta: Helen.**

**#1 Air**

'Take deep breaths, Helen,' Amy tells her, when Helen encounters one of Eggman's fiercer robot machines in battle for the first time, 'it'll help you not to freak out, honest!'

**#2 Apples**

She leaves the piece of fruit on the window ledge, like she used to leave out food for the fox at their old home; and its disappearance confirms that yes –Sonic has been keeping an eye out for her this night.

**#3 Beginning**

'I've... I've sort of had a crush on you since we were thirteen years old,' Chris admits to her nervously one day after Science Class, and Helen simply smiles and doesn't tell him that she'd already figured that out for herself.

**#4: Bugs**

Helen doesn't understand why her classmates are being so squeamish about it –she and the spider that lives on the wall over her desk are of genial acquaintance.

**#5: Coffee**

The lesson Helen learned from all of this was that coffee was not as good a substitute for sleep as Francis thought it was, not even during the final exam period of the college yeah.

**#6: Dark**

Helen isn't afraid of the dark, and hasn't been since she was six years old, but she still feels slightly better when her chair is within reaching distance of her bed whenever she hears the floorboards of their house creaking as if the monsters might come out.

**#7: Despair**

'Not as much as I love all of you,' Cream says, and Helen isn't quite sure why those words are the ones which finally make her break down and burst into tears, but they are.

**#8: Doors**

People always look slightly confused whenever Helen tells them that one of the annoying things about her chair is trying to open doors.

**#9: Drink**

At twenty five years old, in a wheelchair and with quite possibly the sweetest face imaginable, Helen doesn't have to wonder what it is that makes people so surprised that she can down Shots with the best of them.

**#10: Duty**

She knows they have to go home; she _knows_, but that doesn't make it any easier to let go when Cream wraps her arms around and the flowers of the crown they made her are tickling Helen's cheeks.

**#11: Earth**

Helen has to laugh when Chris tells her why Sonic lakes the planet Earth so much –but then again, she thinks, it must be the prettiest shade of blue from so far up in space.

**#12: End**

She isn't sure if this is the end of the story, or just another beginning: all she knows is that nothing felt quite as right as wrapping her arms around his neck and saying 'welcome home'.

**#13: Fall**

It was the last set of steps that did her in, but fortunately for her, Francis had been in just the right position to catch her when the quake of Chaos Energy jolted Helen right out of her chair.

**#14: Fire**

Helen looks up at the Government Agent who has been chasing after them all day for goodness only knows what reason and says 'I think the president is going to fire you, mister.'

**#15: Flexible**

'It's easy when you know how, you just have to... Chris, talking the cherry stalk out of your mouth constitutes as cheating.'

**#16 Flying**

It's not flying – not quite – but Helen thinks that running with Sonic behind her might just be the next best thing.

**#17: Food**

'In answer to your question, Danny: no, I'm afraid I don't think Francis would appreciate a takeaway for her second anniversary meal, but I'm sure whatever you manage to cook will be just fi... can I smell something burning?'

**#18: Foot**

It takes her half an hour to explain exactly what the problem is with her feet, and why she can't just shake the problem out like a runner's cramp before Sonic understands.

**#19: Grave**

Helen creeps a hand into Chris's as they stand over the grave and, tries very hard not to cry at the memory of a smiling old man who could build fighter jets from scratch (and memory) and who once designed an entire car especially for her.

**#20: Green**

She's new to this, and so she listens very carefully as Chris explains the nuances and complications of portal technology – she's as eager to see Sonic again as he is.

**#21: Head**

Where Helen's body fails her, she knows her intellect will suffice.

**#22: Hollow**

Helen can't think how to tell them that there is no hollowness where part of her body should exist and doesn't, because you can't truly miss something which you never had in the first place.

**#23: Honour**

Helen wonders whether or not she should feel honoured for this: for being stood in front of the open gateway to an altogether different world, holding Chris's hand on one side and touching its rainbow coloured surface with the other.

**#24: Hope**

She believes that Chris will come home: because no matter how amazing and incredible Sonic's world might turn out to be, he still promised her he would.

**#25: Light**

'You know you weigh less than Chris,' Sonic said, seeming only a little surprised, as Helen wrapped her arms around his neck and watched her lone (and expensive) wheelchair tumbling into the ravine.

**#26: Lost**

It takes over twenty five minutes before the boys have to admit they're hopelessly lost and let her take over the map reading.

**#27: Metal**

Robotnik made a teeny mistake with that new super-magnetizing robot monster of his –most of Helen's chair isn't even _made_ of metal, which makes it remarkably easy for her to simply wheel up to the side of the machine and locate the off switch.

**#28: New**

Helen can't be one hundred percent certain just who sent her the replacement chair, but she's fairly sure that the "Thorndyke Company" logo on the wheels isn't there by coincidence.

**#29: Old**

It's only been a few months (half a year at the most) since they last saw each other, but for Helen, it feels like several lifetimes.

**#30: Peace**

The most peaceful sound in the world, Helen decided, was lying in the grassy park and listening to Cream humming as she picked out flowers for her crowns.

**#31: Poison**

She cried so much when she found her dad putting down rat poison that he spent his entire weekend off looking for a place that sold more humane varieties of trap.

**#32: Pretty**

When she emerges from her bedroom, pink flowers wrapped around the handles of her chair, dress green and shimmering in the light, Chris looks a little choked up; almost as if she reminds him of something he hasn't told her about yet, and probably will have by the end of the night.

**#33: Rain**

She catches raindrops on her tongue, and doesn't mind that they always seem to taste like exhaust fumes.

**#34: Regret**

She knows it isn't right to despise anything about yourself, but sometimes Helen glimpses at her legs, all weak and withered in her chair, and she can't help but feel a pinch of anger that she would never allow to show on her face.

**#35: Roses**

They are the most beautiful flowers in the garden, but, much like the pink hedgehog of their namesake, Helen knows that they come with prickles if you don't handle them correctly.

**#36: Secret**

The second trip to the island –after midnight, when everyone else was asleep– was Helen and Sonic's personal secret – they never told another soul about it, and they weren't bothered by a single governmental body their whole time there.

**#37: Snakes**

'No, really, they're not slimy at all, they're really kind of soft and silky and... You look a little white in the face, Danny, are you sure you're alright?'

**#38: Snow**

She always wears a thick coat and two pairs of gloves whenever they go outside in winter –she already knows what it's like to feel numb in the legs, and she very much doesn't want that sensation echoed across her entire body.

**#39: Solid**

The surface of the portal is a lot harder and more unyielding than she thought it would be.

**#40: Spring**

The flowers are back in bud, and Helen knows there probably won't be another day in her life when they don't remind her of a sweet little girl with the widest of smiles, who just happened to look like a very cute rabbit.

**#41: Stable**

"Stable" isn't really a word that she would ever choose to describe Sonic, but whenever she's with him, Helen is certain of her safety.

**#42: Strange**

The world is not the normal place it was in the days before Sonic came: Helen, and all the other children, are very much aware of this fact.

**#43: Summer**

Helen will never experience paddling or the sensation of dipping her toes into rock pools only to be bitten by crabs, but even the fifteen year old her can still enjoy the fine art of sandcastle building.

**#44: Taboo**

Helen is who she is, and who she is has an lot to do with her chair: with that in mind, she sees no reason why anyone should be embarrassed about it.

**#45: Ugly**

Helen was never unhappy with who she was: beauty was, after all, in the eye of the beholder.

**#46: War**

Helen can snowball fight with the best: this is something Danny forgot when he decided to lob one her way.

**#47: Water**

Helen can sometimes barely believe she managed to pass three graduate exams in physics and chemistry when a few years ago, the only chemical formula she could name was H2O, and _that_ was only because Sonic disliked it so much.

**#48: Welcome**

She joins the others on the peer as the boar pulls into the harbour, and can't work out which of them she wants to hug the most when they appear onshore.

**#49: Winter**

The big discover of their twelfth winter was that electric wheelchairs made for excellent snow ploughs.

**#50: Wood**

She could stay out here forever, Helen decides, while gazing through the canopy of trees into the blue sky above, and listening to Sonic asking where the heck they keep the hotdog stalls on this island.


	5. Epsilon: Molly

**Yes, I know, this was marked as complete. However there are **_**five**_** different possible sections available on the 1sentence challenge, so I had another fifty words and no more regular humans to work with. So I did one for Molly, too. **

Epsilon: Molly.

**#1: Motion**

It's terrifying, flying through the clouds like this with the Metarex on their tails and cannons blaring in her ears, and yet Molly can't think of anywhere else she'd rather be right now.

**#2: Cool**

When the small evacuee smiles up at her with trust and awe written all over his face, Molly has to admit there are advantages to being a Freedom Fighter.

**#3: Young**

Molly was five years old when the war began: not too young to die, apparently.

**#4: Last**

The shock and bitterness are hard to swallow, but she must do so: she is the last of them willing to fight for her freedom now.

**#5: Wrong**

It's all wrong wrong _wrong_, because Leon would never _ever_ hurt her, would never even _think_ about it, it can't be true, it can't BE this isn't the way it's going to end it _**isn't**_!

**#6: Gentle**

She's all mixed up in her head trying to find some trace of the gentle, beautiful boy who held her hand when she was small in the man now staring at her in grim defeat, claiming they had 'no choice' but to let her die.

**#7: One**

There is only one thing Molly believes in now, and she finds the courage to smile at him a last time before ramming down the accelerator and charging into the onslaught.

**#8: Thousand**

She counts the seventy odd women and child evacuees left behind from over a thousand after the Metarex attacked, and tries her hardest not to be overwhelmed.

**#9: King**

Somewhere inside of her, there's still a squirming child who laughs and teases and wants to say "yes your highness, right away" whenever Leon issues a direct order.

**#10: Learn**

They say that you learn something new every day, and what Molly has learned is that ancient figures of legend don't necessarily turn out to be the way they were in fairytales.

**#11: Blur**

All she sees at first is a blur of black and red, and it's Molly's subconscious that screams the words "_Black Wind, Black Wind_!' at her so loudly that she can almost feel it.

**#12: Wait**

'I waited for you,' she says, and tries her hardest not to blush bright red at the look on Shadow's face when she does.

**#13: Change**

Sooner or later, something had to give: Molly had just never imagined that something would be Leon.

**#14: Command**

She carried out his orders like a dutiful young soldier: it very nearly got her killed.

**#15: Hold**

She realises as she carefully brushes against Black Wind–No, _Shadow_, his name is _Shadow_–'s fingers that it has been forever since she held somebody's hand.

**#16: Need**

It's not something she can run away from, not now, not with her the only one left willing to die for the planet she was born on.

**#17: Vision**

She has twenty-twenty vision, but even she didn't see the Metarex coming until it was almost too late.

**#18: Attention**

Ten years old: she sits hunched up on the floor of the bunker with an unfired pistol in her lap and her nails chewed down to the quick, waiting for her new father/drill instructor/sergeant's orders.

**#19: Soul**

She wants to believe: believe in her, believe in them, believe in Rogue and Shadow and Black Wind, believe in something inside of her that's worth fighting for forever: so she does.

**#20: Picture**

She drew it when she was six years old and still has it stuck under the dashboard of her fighter jet: a picture of her and Leon; holding hands in the sunshine and smiling bright, crayon-red smiles.

**#21: Fool**

She isn't sure what feels worse – the fact that she had trusted him so completely, or the fact that she'd been stupid enough to think that everyone believed as much as she did.

**#22: Mad**

She thinks she went a little crazy, after hearing everyone betray her, but she's also sure that her insanity is better than that of the Metarex any day.

**#23: Child**

The refugee was a mother, once: Molly can see it in the way she pats her gently on the arm and tells her to be 'careful out there, sweetheart, facing those awful Metarex Creatures.'

**#24: Now**

Molly doesn't give a damn about the past anymore: the difference she makes will occur in the present, and the future before them has to be brighter than just this.

**#25: Shadow**

She knows that he's Shadow now, but in her mind, he will always be Black Wind, from now into eternity.

**#26: Goodbye**

Dying is easy, really: and it happens the way she always imagined it would, except for the fact that she knows Black Wind is with her the whole time.

**#27: Hide**

The concept of hiding and waiting for the Metarex to fins her is no more in Molly's vocabulary than running is.

**#28: Fortune**

Molly's fortune is measured in memories and history: ancient papers, old stories of how their world used to be before the Metarex ripped it out from underneath them.

**#29: Safe**

'Open the safe,' he said... this is the kind of ridiculous irony that only Leon could come up with.

**#30: Ghost**

There's something about the memory of brave young girls who died before their time that Shadow can't quite get out of his mind.

**#31: Book**

The closest they get to reading down here are the sheets upon sheets of strategy to be read the night before a mission and burned the morning after, along with the bodies of those who didn't come back.

**#32: Eye**

Dicing with the Metarex robots is something like a very dangerous version of that Eyespy game she used to play with Leon as a child.

**#33: Never**

She won't give up; not now; not ever.

**#34: Sing**

It's an old song, and she never could sing in key, but she hums it to herself as she flies straight into the Energy Beam and waits for the world to dissolve all around her.

**#35: Sudden**

Leon's betrayal comes too quickly for her to do anything other than believe it: she doesn't have time to imagine all the ways in which it can't possibly be true.

**#36: Stop**

'Don't stop!' He yells at her, and she keeps running, putting both her life and fingers in his hand.

**#37: Time**

It takes zero-point-seven six seconds for her to realise that the bomb has exploded and none of them appear to be dead (not unless the afterlife consists of the same barren dirt and rock of her home world, anyway).

**#38: Wash**

'Please, do _not_ tell me that is what you use the dirt trays for?'

'Well if you can find clean water to spare on washing in a place like this, Rouge, let me know, I'd love to hear about it.'

**#39: Torn**

There's a rip in her uniform, and she finds herself obsessing over it most of the flight back – maybe because she can't work out whether she got it in the explosion, or in the fight before, or when Shadow grabbed a hold of her arm and ran with her, as fast as he could.

**#40: History**

The worst thing about it, is the pages of history that Leon had actually been telling the truth about are ripped to shreds by the explosion, just the way Molly should have been.

**#41: Power**

He's a maelstrom of the kind of power that she never imagined could ever exist outside of Black Wind's legend.

**#42: Bother**

She doesn't honestly know why Leon's so interested in saving historical documents now when she always thought he was a lot more interested in physics and chemistry.

**#43: God**

She prays as the Metarex fire on her: and she doesn't know who to or why, but she could've sworn it wasn't listening until Black Wind appeared before her.

**#44: Wall**

The explosion is strong enough to rip up the building like so many paper towels, and Molly shudders as she thinks about what it might've done to them.

**#45: Naked**

She _knows_ he's watching, but she waits until the opportune moment before coughing suggestively and terrifying him back into his bunker.

**#46: Drive**

The only thing that keeps her going some mornings, is the fact that her Jet's engine keeps starting even when the rest of their equipment hardly works at all: if her battered old fighter jet can do it, then so can she.

**#47: Harm**

He won't let anything hurt her: and it's been a long while since Molly ever had anyone want to protect her like that: 'Just like Black Wind.'

**#48: Precious**

She was a beautiful baby – at least according to the one photograph she has from her childhood – and Molly's not quite sure what happened to that hopeful, smiling child, buried under years of battle scars and time.

**#49: Hunger**

She's used to hunger: that's just the way it is around here, in a world where the soil doesn't have enough anaerobic bacteria to give you the common cold, much less a decent crop.

**#50: Believe**

Black Wind will save them; she knows this; she knows this as surely as she knows she has to die for her planet, here and now, or else live forever with the fact that everyone she knows would have given her up anyway.

* * *


End file.
